Residents gear up for climate rally

Transition Santa Cruz members Catharine Gunderson, Lynda Marin and Michael Levy are part of the Santa Cruz County delegation attending the Forward on Climate Rally Saturday in Washington D.C. (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ -- Demonstrators with ties to Santa Cruz County will assemble Sunday to urge President Obama to combat climate change.

Some will go to the National Mall in the hope Obama will deny a construction permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline while others will hold their own demonstrations locally.

Under scrutiny is the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline that would connect oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.

Corralitos residents Nancy Faulstich and Ken Konviser are rallying close to home. The couple is planning a demonstration at the Watsonville Plaza for 3 p.m. Sunday to coincide with the Washington event.

"I want to do something small and local," said Faulstich, "even if it's me a few of my friends and family out there." While Faulstich personally opposes the Keystone XL Pipeline, she said she wants this event to call attention to the broader issues of climate change and energy policy.

The proposed pipeline will the be the focus of Sunday's "Forward on Climate" rally in Washington, staged by the environmental organization 350.org. While supporters of the pipeline argue that the project would support energy independence and create U.S. jobs, opponents are concerned that it will mean continued reliance on fossil fuel and more greenhouse gas emissions.

John Pearse, an evolutionary biologist and retired UC Santa Cruz professor, plans to attend the Washington rally. As former president of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Pearse wrote an open letter to President Obama this month, signed by 18 of the society's past and current presidents. The letter asked Obama to deny Canadian oil firm TransCanada's pending permit request.

Extracting the petroleum that saturates the sand in Alberta's oil region is difficult, expensive and damaging to the environment, Pearse said. "This is going to desperate means to continue to get oil for energy."

Michael Levy of Santa Cruz will also make the trip to Washington. Through the local organization Transition Santa Cruz, which focuses on promoting a "post-fossil fuel economy," Levy has assembled a group of five to display a sign on the Mall. "It's sort of drawing a line in the sand and saying, 'We can't keep on destroying more and more of our earth in order to keep this oil addiction going,'" Levy said.

In January 2012, the Obama administration rejected TransCanada's original permit request, saying it needed more time to assess the project's impact. The State Department is expected to release a decision by June.

Corralitos' Faulstich and Konviser, who both work for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, said they would like to form a broader coalition to raise awareness about climate change. "We just feel it's important for our future," said Konviser, "[and] for our students' futures."